It really annoys me when I read comments like that, not because I think the game is any good, but this non linear scale they apply to anything to do with rating a game. Case in point, the 7/10, which has become meaningless because mediocre games always get a 7/10. So the sentence quoted really grates because if 10% feels like as if it's more important, it's clearly bigger than 10%!

That's the thing. I've worked at Australian elections, and the procedure basically ensures that the scale of the conspiracy to rig an election would require that a very large amount of fairly random people (the only common thing between them is that they all apply to work at the election) would have to be involved.

This!

As a recent engineering student, it was obvious in subjects with plenty of maths and funny looking symbols, that the only way to write things down was with a pen and paper. I just bought exercise books for the subjects where I needed to write.

Main point I wanted to make was that, you could tell that the students are engaged, when there were only one or two laptops or tablets out. If there were lots of people on some sort of computing device, then it was obvious that they weren't listening at all. Next to no one actually uses their computer for notes.

I asked for an opinion from a decent pianist that I know on why are steinways so expensive, albeit quite a while ago, and he never commented on sound. The main comment was getting the balance between a good action to play on, and one that lasted with significant use. Pianos do wear out with use. Old pianos generally should be considered like an old car.

One thing for certain is, marketing certainly plays a major role. Having big names use or endorse the gear certainly sells units. Certainly in the case of beats headphones and monster cables, that's completely marketing, while the cables are overkill, the headphones suck.

When it comes to luxury items, the french seem to have it mastered, particularly with alcohol, where their drinking end price range isn't particularly good at all (I'm Australian, local wine becomes quite drinkable if you spend >$20 a bottle), then their cognac or champagne, it's all marketing by having a it named after a region and protecting it so viciously.

It is making some large inroads in some industries, CNC technology in general is being heavily thrown into dental, for instance. A lot of the cast parts such as teeth and crowns are being milled, while I've also seen 3D printers being used to make other parts as well, such as dentures.

However, in general, the 3D printers aren't really brilliant yet. Problem with the original article is that it doesn't describe what machine it was made on. The quality of the print, and the ability to print all assembled indicates that it's a very expensive commercial model, rather than the cheaper consumer ones. Reality behind it is, why bother 3D printing those parts if the machine costs tens of thousands of dollars, and material costs hundreds of dollars per kilo.

lol at the arts funding, he didn't tell them they "don't have the right to refuse funding from corporate sponsors whose ethical values conflict with those of the artists", he just said that if they do refuse corporate donations, the government shouldn't be filling in the fiscal shortfall due to the protest they are making.

If artists want to make a stand over something, good for them, it's their right to do so, but they shouldn't then be able to just fall back on taxpayer dollars by shaking the money bucket, every time they feel their purity is under threat. And even then, the government is the progenitor of this stand that they're taking, considering it's asylum seeker detention which they are against, so taking government money would, in a sense be, hypocritical.

After all, only the impotent are pure...

The problem is during WW2, Ukrainian nationalists sided with the Nazis. So while it is insulting for most Slavic nations, it's a bit hard to say the same for the Ukraine because there still is the same nationalistic mindset, with strong support for Stepan Bandera and the groups who carried out massacres.

The western media isn't really covering this fact, while the Russian media is dwelling exclusively on this. So no matter what, people are getting a skewed outlook on what has been happening, but one thing for certain is that the nationalists are large in number, and the Ukrainian 'opposition' isn't distancing themselves from them at all.

That's a surprising thing about the US. I live in Sydney, Australia, and it used to be, about 30-40 years ago that the inner suburbs were slums, but now its the outer suburbs which are not the best and the inner city is heavily gentrified and absurdly expensive.

Got any links? I particularly can't find Schneier's resignation letter, but would be also curious to read the industrial history you are referring to, since I'm not an American.

Well we had a Mr Whitlam, who abolished junior rates. Not that it's the same thing, but in hindsight it basically meant, untrained juniors were then to get full salary, so why would anyone employ an untrained person when they could get an experienced person for the same pay?

No truer words written. I'm seeing it in Australia, where the government provides loans for tuition, the universities grow with more students, get more money, employ more people, etc, everywhere they want more and more people to come out with a degree. So then you have this ridiculous situation where child care workers are no longer in child care but rather early childhood education and care. The absurd part of it is, people are starting to need to go through training to do something which they may be already perfectly experienced at by virtue of i don't know, but maybe being a mother, just for example.

You also get the situation where doing clerical work, particularly for the government as a public servant/employee, now requires a degree. Doesn't matter what, but a degree is necessary. It beggars belief that they don't care what you studied, but a degree is necessary to do work which requires on the job training.